16 Indian Startups Making News This Week (10 July- 16 July)

18/07/2017

Consumer Internet Industry

1) Design Café founded by Gita Ramanan and Shezaan Bhojani: Design Cafe, an online interior design company secured a multi-million-dollar round of funding from Fireside Ventures founded by Kanwaljit Singh, former managing director of Helion Ventures. The startup plans to deploy the raised funds to expand to other cities, including Mumbai and Delhi.

E-commerce Industry

2) Chumbak founded by Subhra Chadda: Bengaluru-based lifestyle brand Chumbak raised $1.2 million in debt funding. The startup will utilize the funds to meet its working capital requirements and to expand its stores. Earlier, in November 2016, it also raised an equity funding from Bengaluru-based private equity firm Gaja Capital’s Partner Narayan Ramachandran.

Technology Industry

3) Autorox.co founded by Vijay Gummadi and Venu Donepudi: Hyderabad-based Smart Auto Systems Private Ltd, which operates a workshop management software platform for passenger cars, raised $3 million in a Series A funding round from Japanese business conglomerate Mitsui & Co. The company will deploy the funds to ramp up technology and expand its services across the country.

4) Innoviti founded by Rajeev Agrawal: Bengaluru-based fintech start-up Innoviti Payment Solutions raised $18.5 million Series B funding from Singapore-based SBI-FMO Fund. The round also saw participation from Bessemer Venture Partners and existing investor Catamaran Ventures. The company funding will be utilized to aggressively market its uniPAY Next digital payments platform experience to gain customers.

5) Bottr.me founded by Abhimanyu Godara: Chatbot creation tool Bottr.me founded an undisclosed amount of seed funding from 500 Startups, Purvi Capital, Google India’s managing director Rajan Anandan, and Abhishek Gupta from TLabs. The startup will utilize the fresh funds for team expansion and product improvement.

6) Arcatron Mobility founded by Laxmikant Banjarey, Ganesh Sonawane, Dewaj Baruah, and Kunal Kamble: Delhi-based ‘Assisted Living Technology’ startup Arcatron secured an undisclosed funding from Sudhir Mehta, Harish Mehta, and Ketan Dalal from the Indian Angel Network. The company funding will be used for the production launch of Frido, an innovative self-driven shower and commode wheelchair which fits in a suitcase. In addition, the Indian startup will also deploy the funds to set up online and offline sales channels across major cities in India and for the filing of IP for future products like the Frido Lite.

7) Stellapps founded by Venkatesh Seshasayee, and Ranjith Mukundan: Bengaluru-based IoT startup Stellapps secured an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from Blume Ventures, Flipkart Group CEO Binny Bansal, and Venture Highway. Earlier, the startup received an undisclosed amount of funding from venture capital firm Omnivore Partners in 2013.

Health and Wellness Industry

8) Fabogo founded by Prasanjeet Roy, and Mohammad Ali Akmal: Pune-based beauty services and wellness aggregator Fabogo raised $2.25 million from Dubai-based early-stage investor Dunamis Ventures. The Indian startup will deploy the recently-raised funds towards reinforcement technology and to increase its user base. The remaining amount will be utilized for geographical expansion.

Digital Media Industry

9) Flickstree founded by Saurabh Singh, Nagender Sangra, and Rahul Jain: Former Indian Cricketer Sourav Ganguly financed an undisclosed amount in Flickstree, a Mumbai-based, curated video platform. Apart from Ganguly, the startup funding round also saw participation from Venture Catalysts, Anirban Aditya & Ankit Aditya (Aditya Group, Kolkata), and Moksh Sports Ventures. The Indian startup has over 20+ categories that users can currently follow.

10) Charlie Chatter Adrian Marafioti and Ruchir Punjabi: Bengaluru-based full-service digital-first agency Langoor made an undisclosed investment in Charlie Chatter – a TV Chat application. The patented technology controls secure overlay messaging and notifications to different displays via its server, providing real-time and relevant content to viewers on demand. Using this technology, the Charlie Chatter TV Chat application creates a fun, immersive, and pleasing experience for people in their homes when they are watching and chatting about their favorite TV shows with their friends.

Logistics Industry

11) VDeliver founded by Chaitanya Reddy, Srinivas Madhavam, and Prashant Patalay: Indian startup VDeliver secured an undisclosed amount in a Pre-Series A funding round from Corvus Ventures and Mumbai-based MAPE Advisory Group. Sify Technologies co-founder R. Ramaraj and Managing Director of Microsoft India (R&D) Pvt. Ltd Anil Bhansali also participated in the startup funding round. The Hyderabad-based company will utilize the investment to develop new products and services as well as to support its present portfolio.

Real Estate Industry

12) QwikSpec founded by Ajith Alexander: Bengaluru-based construction site operations and analytics platform QwikSpec secured $540K in a Pre-Series A funding round from Brigade Innovations LLP. TV Mohandas Pai, Asset Builders Director Suhail Rahman, Bobby Reddy of Indus Group, and UAE-based private investor M George Oommen also participated in this round. The Indian startup will deploy the funds to reinforce its technology infrastructure, business development, and customer acquisition initiatives.

Education Industry

13) EduGorilla founded by Rohit Manglik: Lucknow-based edtech startup EduGorilla raised an undisclosed amount of funding from London and Dubai-based investors. The startup funding will be used for business development, strengthening the core technology team, and expanding its presence across various cities in India. The Indian startup is eyeing expansion in three states namely Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi.

Food & Beverage Industry

14) Blue Tokai founded by Matt Chitharanjan, and Namrata Asthana: Delhi-based specialty coffee e-tailer Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters secured a bridge round of funding from one of its undisclosed existing investors. The startup targets to deliver handpicked brands from all over the country to coffee lovers of India.

15) Foom founded by Lokesh Bevara: Bengaluru-based startup for drinks Foom raised $46K in seed funding led by a Delhi-based investor. The company would be investing major part from the funds for its subscription-based app ‘Foom App.’ The service is currently available in more than 40 resto-bars and pubs in Bengaluru.

Fintech Industry

16) Open founded by Anish Achuthan and Mabel Chacko: PayU India CEO Amrish Rau and Managing Director Jitendra Gupta together invested $250K in Bengaluru-based fintech startup Open. The Indian startup is set to offer digital banking, bookkeeping, invoicing and other services to micro-entrepreneurs. The startup funding will be utilized for branding and expansion of the 12-member team.

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